Nov 15 2023
Content planning for a (growing) blog: 6 easy-to-use tips

Maintaining a blog is about more than just writing a bunch of blog posts. You should develop a strategy and plan your content – especially if you’re writing with multiple authors. You should also interact with your audience and respond to their comments. In this post, I’ll explain the importance of content planning and give some practical tips on how to plan your blog posts – effortlessly!

A blog post planning that works

If your blog and audience are growing and you’re getting more serious about blogging, you should make a plan for your content. This might seem unnecessary at first, but it will make your life so much easier! Especially if you work with guest bloggers or multiple authors who write about different topics.

But how do you create a proper plan? Well, we’ve got six important pointers for you:

Want to read more about the technical side of a growing blog? Then read our article on how to manage the technical SEO of a growing blog. Or struggling with your blogs structure? Read how to keep the structure of your growing blog under control!

1. Create an editorial calendar

An editorial calendar is essential if you’re working with multiple authors and you’re posting frequently. So, what is an editorial calendar? It’s a calendar in which you plot all the posts that you’re going to write the upcoming weeks, months, or even year!

This could just be an Excel sheet, but it’s easier to use an editorial plugin or a service with a drag-and-drop calendar. Think Trello, MeisterTask or Monday. In this calendar, you can easily assign posts to authors and editors, and (if you like) use labels for categorization.

2. Sit down and brainstorm

If you want to fill your editorial calendar, you could start with a brainstorm session. Invite all your blog authors, and sit together. Ask everyone what their ideas are and which posts they would like to write in the near future. Of course, you should use your keyword research as a basis.

While you’re brainstorming, make a list of everyone’s ideas and wishes, then plot them out on the editorial calendar. Make sure your authors finish their blog posts a few days before the publish date so you can proofread and edit if needed. Plus, you can use that time to find or create accompanying illustrations or photos.

3. Decide on frequency

You should blog regularly. Still, it’s hard to give exact numbers. For most company blogs, one daily post is fine and doable. For a personal blog, however, this probably isn’t be feasible. Try to establish some kind of frequency and stick to it. Your readers will appreciate a reliable schedule.

Once you know you can commit to your chosen schedule, make sure to communicate it to your audience, so they know what they can expect!

4. Add variation

If you often write about similar topics – beware of keyword cannibalization though – make sure to vary a little. Don’t post articles about nearly identical topics one after another. Of course, you can still write blog series, but try to vary between subjects as much as possible.

You could also make variations in the form of your content. A video post, for example, spices things up!

5. Use news and current events

When planning your content, you should take a look at your calendar as well! Are there any major events coming up that are worth mentioning in your blog post? Or should you write a few seasonal posts? Make sure to mix these ‘current-events posts’ with other posts you have lined up.

6. Use a style guide

Creating a style guide for your blog is a great way to make sure everyone writes and spells in the same way. Of course, we should all write in a grammatically correct way, but the use of capitals and brand names could differ. As all authors write for the same blog, it will create more unity if everyone spells the important words in the same way.

In the style guide, you could also agree on the length of your posts, the use of paragraphs and headings, and the use of images. It should be a document in which you write down all the things that have to be consistent in your posts. And don’t forget to add some pointers for SEO copywriting as well!

If you work with an occasional guest blogger, a style guide could be a great document to help them write a post that fits the style of your blog as well.

Content planning will help you grow!

A growing blog will ask for more content planning, especially if you’re working with multiple authors. It’s important to agree on style, the topics you want to write about, and the number of blog posts you want to publish. And don’t forget to evaluate your content strategy from time to time. As long as authors keep on working and talking together, a blog with multiple authors can be a great success and make your site grow even further!

Read more: Blogging: the ultimate guide »



Cindy Paul

Cindy is a content manager at Yoast. She writes and optimizes blog posts, and enjoys writing content that will help people create better content for their site and users.

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Nov 15 2023
Is my website over-optimized?

You want your content to rank. We understand! But you have to be careful that you don’t go overboard in your optimization strategies. So what is the difference between SEO and over-optimization? And how do you recognize an over-optimized website? In this post, we will answer both questions!

What is over-optimization?

We believe that a website is over-optimized if the techniques aimed at ranking high harm the quality of the site. In such a case, visitors of the website will have a different and worse experience.

For example: if your texts become hard or annoying to read, then you’re probably stuffing them with keywords you want to be found on. Perhaps there are uncountable numbers of links on your website, and you’re probably trying to over-optimize your anchor texts.

Ways you can over-optimize your site

Let’s look at all the ways you can over-optimize your site, so you know what not to do.

Keyword stuffing

Keyword stuffing is the most obvious way to over-optimize your website. Of course, using your keyword a number of times will help with your ranking. Google will understand what your post is about and rank it accordingly. Over-optimized text, however, is unreadable. If you put your keyword in every (other) sentence, your text will become terrible to read. Nobody wants to read a blog post about pink ballet shoes if every sentence contains the keyword [pink ballet shoes]. Even people who are genuinely interested in pink ballet shoes will get annoyed.

You might not immediately think about site structure when you think about over-optimizing your website. But if you point all your internal and external links to your homepage or contact page, because you want them to rank high, you’re definitely not doing it right.

If you want to have a good site structure, your internal and external links should go to your in-depth content and your homepage. A good rule of thumb is 50% to your homepage and other main navigation pages, and 50% to your in-depth pages or content.

Ranking for non-relevant keywords

It might be tempting to try to rank for popular search terms. After all, more people will see your site! But that’s not necessarily true. If this ‘extra’ keyword or keyphrase has nothing to do with your content, people will realize your content isn’t helpful and leave your site. This won’t look good to Google. In fact, having too much content optimized for unrelated keywords could even make your site rank lower in the search result pages.

Another way to over-optimize your site is by stuffing your footer with keywords and links. They don’t really add any value to your SEO, since they aren’t crawled often and Google devalues footer links. But you are risking over-optimization.

Besides, having a cluttered footer also makes for a poor user experience. People mostly use a footer to get referred to your socials or easily access your contact details. And as we always say: you should design and optimize your website for your users, not Google.

Consequences of an over-optimizated website

If you’re taking the optimization of your content a little too far, you are risking a Panda penalty. If Panda hits you, you’ll notice a sudden drop in your rankings. Over-optimizing your content could, therefore, backfire.

And that’s just Google. An over-optimized site also has consequences for your UX, and therefore for your users. A post stuffed with keywords isn’t easy or fun to read, and a text full of links isn’t attractive either. Would you want to share that type of content on social media? Probably not. So, an over-optimized website can also cause you to receive less social media attention. The bottom line: if your visitors get annoyed, they’ll be less inclined to buy something or return to your website.

Our advice for over-optimization

Though you may have good intentions, an over-optimized website means there’s too much of a good thing. It implies that the UX or readability of your website has suffered from your SEO strategy. At Yoast, we practice holistic SEO. This is backed up by Google, who states they want to give the user the best result. With our SEO strategy, we always aim to the best result.

So, write the best content, make sure the UX of your site is flawless, cover all technical aspects, and take care of the security of your site. Without making any concessions to the quality of your site, you can do numerous things to optimize your site for the search engines.

Read more: How to write a high quality and SEO-friendly blog post »



Cindy Paul

Cindy is a content manager at Yoast. She writes and optimizes blog posts, and enjoys writing content that will help people create better content for their site and users.

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Nov 9 2023
What is thin content?

At Yoast, we like to say: “Content is king”. But what does that mean? In short, it means you need content to rank. But not just any content. It needs to be meaningful and original. In this SEO basics post, we’ll explain why you need content to make your site attractive for visitors. We’ll also explain why Google dislikes low quality or thin content, and what you can do about it.

What is thin content?

Thin content is content that has little or no value to the user. Google considers low-quality affiliate pages, doorway pages (pages optimized for a keyword that redirect the user to another page), or simply pages with very little to no content as thin content pages.

But don’t fall into the trap of just producing loads of very similar content! Non-original pages, pages with scraped and duplicate content are considered thin content pages too. And Google doesn’t like pages that are stuffed with keywords either, because it has learned to distinguish between valuable and low-quality content, especially since Google Panda. That’s why Google has also launched the Helpful Content update, to further differentiate between helpful and original content, and low-quality content.

What does Google want?

Google tries to provide the best results for their users. The best result is usually the one that matches the search intent of the user. So, if you want to rank high, you have to convince Google that you’re answering the question of the user.

When we look at it this way, it makes sense why thin content rarely qualifies as the best result. If there’s not enough information, people will likely not find their answer. So try to write enjoyable and informative copy. Not just to make Google happy, but (even more importantly) to make your users happy.

Read more: SEO basics: What does Google do? »

Be the best result

Now that you understand what Google wants, it’s time to write meaningful copy about the keywords you’d like to rank for. This shouldn’t be too much of a problem if you blog about something you’re passionate about. After all, if you write about a topic you love (and probably know everything about), it’ll be easy to show Google that your content contains an expert’s point of view!

I don’t know how to write longer content

Every situation is different. We understand that it’s not always possible to write an elaborate text about everything. For instance, if you own an online shop that sells hundreds of different computer parts, it can be a challenge to write an extensive text about everything.

Our advice: make sure that every page has some original introductory content, instead of just an image and a buy button next to the price. If you sell lots of products that are very alike, you could also choose to optimize the category page instead of the product page or use canonicals to prevent duplicate content issues.

How do we help you?

Have you heard of our content analysis checks? It’s part of the Yoast SEO plugin, and it helps you write awesome copy. For example, one of the checks is to write at least 300 words per page or posts. This ensures that you won’t publish thin content. We also check if you haven’t used the same keyword before, which helps prevent you from creating similar content. 

And what about keyword stuffing? Yep, we check for that too! Our keyword density check shows you if you’ve used your keyword too many or too little, so you get a nicely optimized and natural-sounding text. That’s why you should make sure at least these lights are green!

If you want to take it one step further, you can use our readability check. This allows you to make sure that the quality of your text is good, and that readers can easily understand your content.

Next steps

Really want to learn how to create content that ranks? Then you may want to give our SEO copywriting training a try! It guides you through the entire process of keyword research and content creation. This training will help you to develop skills to write awesome content for your website!

Keep reading: Content SEO: the ultimate guide »



Cindy Paul

Cindy is a content manager at Yoast. She writes and optimizes blog posts, and enjoys writing content that will help people create better content for their site and users.

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Oct 24 2023
Why you should use your focus keyphrase in your introduction

When you write a post or page, we advise you to use your focus keyphrase in your introduction. Why? In short: Mentioning your focus keyphrase in your introduction makes it easier for readers and search engines to find your content. And figure out what it’s about. In this post, we’ll explain in depth why mentioning this is so important. And we’ll also tell you how Yoast SEO, our WordPress plugin as well as our Shopify app, can help you!

Table of contents

Did you get a red or orange light for the keyphrase in the introduction assessment in Yoast SEO? Here, we explain what the check does, and how you can improve your introductions and get a green light.

What is a focus keyphrase?

A focus keyphrase is a phrase that you want your post or page to rank for.

Let’s say you want to write a post about how to make a sourdough starter. To find the optimal keyphrase, you’ll need to do some research and discover what people are looking for and what words they’re using. This will increase your chances of getting found. FInally, you might end up with a keyphrase like “make sourdough starter”. Then, when people search for instructions on how to make it, they might find your post in Google’s search results (very much depending on what the competition does, of course).

Starting off your texts with the focus keyphrase

Writing a good, informative introduction is crucial. With just a few lines, you need to grab the attention of your readers and get them to stay on your page. It is worth remembering that most people scan pages rather than read them with complete attention. So if you include your focus keyphrase right at the start, you’ll make it easier for your readers to understand what your page is about.

What about search engines?

Readers are not the only ones you need to woo with the introduction. Search engines like to “read” introductions too. So if you include your focus keyphrase at the start of your text, you’re giving search engines clues about the topic of your post. Moreover, Google sometimes uses your first paragraph to create a meta description. So you’ll do yourself a huge favor by including your focus keyphrase at the start.

Sounds easy enough, right? Simply add the focus keyphrase at the start, and you’re done. But wait, there’s more! How you write the rest of the introduction is also vital. So let’s see how Yoast SEO can help you, and what you’ll need to do. 

How does Yoast SEO help you?

Yoast SEO comes with a keyphrase in introduction check. So, how does it work? After you tell Yoast SEO what your focus keyphrase is, this check scans to see if you’ve included it in the introduction of your text.

Preferably, you should use your focus keyphrase in the very first sentence to make your topic clear immediately. But it’s also important that your text has a natural flow, so try not to force anything. Yoast SEO Premium (for WordPress) also allows you to add keyphrase synonyms, and it will take these synonyms into account when analyzing your introduction. 

Where can I find the keyphrase check?

The check is part of the SEO analysis tab in the Yoast SEO sidebar and meta box at the bottom of your post editor.

What if my keyphrase check light is orange or red?

If the check light is red or orange, it may be due to these reasons: 

  • You’ve mentioned your subject, but not your focus keyphrase;
  • You started with an anecdote to attract attention, but the anecdote doesn’t include your focus keyphrase;
  • You’ve mentioned your keyphrase (or its synonyms), but not within the same sentence;
  • You’ve used a synonym for your keyphrase in the introduction, but not told Yoast SEO Premium it is a synonym.

Yoast SEO gives you a green light when it thinks you did a good job with the focus keyphrase in the introduction.

How can you write good introductions that include the focus keyphrase? 

Great question! A good paragraph and introduction start with a core sentence, which is a sentence that includes the most important message of that paragraph. If you can, add your focus keyphrase to that core sentence. Next, use the rest of the paragraph to discuss what readers can expect from the post. You can also mention the post’s purpose, and explain your structure in your introduction.

And don’t forget that your audience doesn’t only consist of returning visitors who are familiar with your stories and products. Always take the perspective of a new visitor. Ask yourself: Does my introduction give new visitors enough clues on what my post is about?

Stay on topic

Another thing to keep in mind: Be concise and precise. Try not to wander or start writing about an irrelevant topic. One way to keep yourself from digressing too much is to use the inverted pyramid writing style. This method encourages you to get to the heart of the matter immediately. Your readers will be thankful for it.

What if you can’t use the keyphrase at the start?

Sometimes, you won’t be able to use the focus keyphrase at the very start. For example, you might want to catch your readers’ attention with an anecdote or a question. In such cases, follow up with your focus keyphrase as soon as you can. This way, you still make it clear what your page or post is about.

Don’t overdo it

Be careful not to overuse your keyphrase, since it can make your text repetitive. Luckily, Yoast SEO Premium can help you avoid this! If you use the feature that allows you to add synonyms and related keyphrases, the plugin will be able to recognize them and include them in the analysis of your introduction. If you see the orange or red light, you might’ve used your keyphrase too much.

Tip: Yoast SEO Premium also gives you access to all of our SEO courses, including the SEO copywriting course. This course can help you write great introductions and texts that include your focus keyphrase.

Go Premium to get access to this feature!

Unlock lots of features and get access to all of our SEO courses with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin:

Save the best for last

Are you still struggling to come up with your introduction? No worries. You don’t have to write the introduction first! It might even be easier to write after you’ve finished the full post. Why? Because you’ll have a better idea of the angle and content of the post, which makes it easier to write a great and enticing introduction that masterfully includes your focus keyphrase.

Need some guidance on writing a good introduction for your post? We’ve also written a super practical post with a recipe for great introductions!

Conclusion

In this post, you learned that it’s a good SEO practice to include your focus keyphrase in your introduction. Of course, just adding the keyphrase won’t do much, unless your whole introduction (and post) is well written. So what does a captivating introduction look like? It’s concise, and it introduces the reader to the topic straight away. Alternatively, it answers a question a reader may have. So, invest some time in writing excellent introductions. For both your audience and Google. It will be worth it.

Read more: The ultimate guide to SEO Copywriting »

Cindy Paul

Cindy is a content manager at Yoast. She writes and optimizes blog posts, and enjoys writing content that will help people create better content for their site and users.

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Oct 4 2023
How to Yoast your post

Are you aiming for that number 1 position in the search results? And do you madly chase traffic and clicks? It’s not easy to achieve all these things on your own. Luckily, Yoast is here to help. In this post, we’ll talk you through optimizing your post in the best possible way. We’ll explain the five steps on how to Yoast your post.

Writing comes first, Yoast comes second

Optimizing your post is important, but it should never come first. Writing has three phases:

  1. Prepare your content
  2. Write!
  3. Edit your content (and Yoast it!)

It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a blog post, an article, or novel. The steps are all the same.

Preparation is key

Before you start writing an article, you should be able to answer the following questions:

  • What will be the main message of my post?
  • What do I want to tell people?
  • Who are my readers?
  • What search terms do I want to be found for?

In other words, you should take some time to think about what you want to tell your audience and what the structure of your text will look like. You need to know who you’re writing for and what their goal or search intent is. And what keywords does your audience use, so your content can be found in the search engines?

If you do not think about these questions long and hard, you’ll make mistakes like addressing the wrong audience, focusing on the wrong keywords or writing an article that’s badly structured and unfocused.

Write!

After thoroughly preparing your blog post or article, you can start writing. Make sure to start by filling out your focus keyphrases and their synonyms. What are the terms you want to be found for?

Since you’ve thought about what you’ll write in the preparation phase, you should go with the flow when you’re writing. Don’t overthink. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. You’ll have the third – and most important phase- to correct and Yoast your post.

Editing: let’s Yoast it!

In the final editing phase, you can Yoast your post. So, let’s look at the five steps you should take to optimize your post to the max.

  1. Make sure your text is readable

    The first step in optimizing your post is checking the readability analysis. If your overall readability score is green, you’re good to go. But that’s not always the case! Perhaps you used too many long sentences. Maybe you’ve used the passive voice too often. Correct those readability issues and make your text nice and easy to read. Check out our article about the readability analysis for more tips!

  2. Check out your snippet preview

    You want people to click on your site in the search result pages. You need to write a kickass meta description to make your result stand out. Because a good meta description lets people know they’ll find what they’re looking for on your site! That’s why you should choose a title and a meta description that stands out. Read our article on how to use Yoast SEO to write an awesome meta description if you want more practical tips.

    If you need more help writing awesome meta descriptions, try the meta description generator. Our AI-powered generator crafts unique descriptions and titles for you! This feature is currently available if you have our premium Yoast SEO plugin.

  3. Check your SEO score

    The third step is to check out the SEO analysis. Which aspects of your SEO need improvement? Perhaps you should use your keyword or its synonym more often. Or maybe you’re overdoing it. And what about headings and images?

    Check out which problems and improvements the Yoast SEO analysis indicates. Usually, you can easily make some tweaks that’ll make your copy better optimized for search engines. But don’t overdo it! You do not need all green traffic lights. You’re good to go if your overall SEO traffic light is green!

  4. Add those internal links

    Another thing you need before your content can rank is links. Google finds your posts and pages best when linked to from somewhere on the web. Internal links also connect your content and give Google an idea of the structure of your website. So, using the right internal linking strategy can boost your SEO!

    Are you linking to your most important articles? Are you linking to articles that are closely related to the article you’re currently writing? Make sure your site structure is tip-top. Read more about the power of internal linking and why you should use Yoast internal linking.

  5. Read and reread!

    Yoast SEO is a tool that aims to help you optimize your content. It gives practical tips on what you can do to improve your content. Think of it as your personal SEO assistant! But that being said, it’s also just a tool. Make sure to re-read your content once you’ve optimized it to make sure you’re happy with the end result!

Yoast your post

Writing is hard. Optimizing your post all by yourself is hard. That’s why Yoast SEO tries to make it easier for you! We’ll check your posts for readability, paragraph length, word complexity, your use of inclusive language, and make suggestions for improvements. We’ll help you to Yoast your post. But in the end, it will also remain some work from your side.

Good luck! Let’s Yoast it!



Edwin Toonen

Edwin is a strategic content specialist. Before joining Yoast, he spent years honing his skill at The Netherlands’ leading web design magazine.

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